The present invention is directed to a method and system for providing data to a user based on a user""s query.
Financial research providers such as brokerage and investment banking firms spend large sums of money creating, printing and distributing thousands of graphic-rich research reports to investors (e.g., customers, remote sales offices, investment advisors, brokers, portfolio managers, etc.). Research providers seeking to reduce costs may consider distributing these reports electronically, from computer to computer. Electronic distribution is generally cost effective when compared with hard copy distribution methods. Communication networks, such as the Internet, enable information to be distributed to a wide range of people at locations around the world.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,518 to Karaev et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,271 to Mahoney et al., expressly incorporated herein by reference, describe electronic information distribution systems that allow remote users to receive, access and query information that is stored in electronic form at a central server, called a repository server. Users communicate with the repository server via, e.g., the Internet. The repository server is coupled to the Internet by a web server. The repository server comprises or is coupled to a plurality of databases of information stored in electronic form.
The repository server is coupled to one or more remote contributor workstations. The information that is stored at the repository server is received from the contributor workstations in electronic form. The information received from the contributor workstations are files comprising one or more documents. These documents typically contain text, data, charts, graphs, spreadsheets and the like, or combinations thereof, and may be in many formats. Any information that can be stored in digital form, such as photographs, videos, sound recordings, etc. may be stored in the files received from the contributor workstations. The files received from the contributor workstations are converted at a central site into a predetermined format, e.g., for printable documents, a common viewing format such as, for example, PDF format, and thereafter provided to the repository server. Each document submitted to the repository server may be accompanied by a document profile comprising information organized according to predefined fields relating to the document.
Each user has a user computer, such as, e.g., a personal computer with an Intel Pentium processor and a modem. The user computer may, or may not, have a local storage device. An example of a computer without a local storage device may be, e.g., a network computer, xe2x80x9cthinxe2x80x9d client, etc. The user may use the computer to connect to the repository via, e.g., the Internet, intranet, extranet and/or dial-in access.
The repository server can provide the user with a list of new documents that have been recently received by the repository server and which that user is authorized to access. The user may also request a list of documents that fit certain user-specified search criteria. A list of the documents that match that search criteria and which the user is authorized to access is provided to the user computer. The user can then select, request and view documents from these lists.
The web server is coupled to at least two database search engines in the repository server. At least one search engine performs at least full text searching of textual documents. At least one other search engine performs at least searching on predefined fields of information. When a search is submitted by the user to the web server, it is determined what type of search is required, and the appropriate query (e.g., full text, search on predefined fields) is formulated and submitted to the appropriate search engine. The search engine returns a results set to the web server. Typically, the results set comprises a list of documents satisfying the query and that the user has authorization to access.
When an external event occurs, i.e., a xe2x80x9cnewsxe2x80x9d event, users (e.g, investors) must be immediately notified in order to properly react to the news. The systems described in the Karaev ""518 patent and the Mahoney ""271 patent notify users of events using a xe2x80x9cstored queryxe2x80x9d method. The xe2x80x9cstored queryxe2x80x9d method first stores a user""s query and then executes the xe2x80x9cstored queryxe2x80x9d periodically. An incoming document is matched against every existing user profile. Each user profile identifies, for example, the type of documents or news the user is interested in seeing. This approach is time consuming. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for providing data to a user based on a user""s query.
The present invention provides a method and system for notifying users of an arrival of a document. A respective query is received from each respective user. Each respective query includes at least one query term and at least one query condition. For each respective query, each one of the at least one query term is stored in a database only if the one query term is unique with respect to other query terms stored in the database.
The document, which includes a document term being associated with the document, is received. The document term is compared with the stored query terms. For each respective query, a determination is made whether all of the at least one query condition of the respective query is satisfied as a function of the comparatione between the document term(s) and the stored query terms. For each respective query, if all of the at least one query condition of the respective query is satisfied, the respective user is notified of the arrival of the document.